Dr. Pengpeng Bi

The UGA Green Labs program would like to recognize Dr. Pengpeng Bi, Assistant Professor in the Center for Molecular Medicine & Department of Genetics, for taking sustainable actions in his lab during the Fall 2022 semester.  By working with Green Labs intern Anna Lentz to implement energy-saving initiatives, Dr. Bi and his team were able to make their research more sustainable and reduce their energy use without compromising the quality, ease or efficacy of their research.

Dr. Bi embraced several Green Labs initiatives, such as adding timers to benchtop equipment, shutting the fume hood sash when not in use, and raising the temperature of his ultra-low freezers from -80 to -70.  Installing timers on benchtop water baths and microscopes allows equipment to be ready for use when needed and powered down at night when no one is in the lab, thus saving hours of energy use each day.  Raising ultra-low freezer temperatures from -80 to -70 still protects vital research samples while saving up to 30% the energy. Finally, modifying behaviors surrounding fume hood use and shutting the fume hood sash when not in use can save up to 40% the energy for VAV fume hoods. By incorporating these small changes into his lab space, Dr. Bi was able to save over 14.4 kWh/day---a savings of over $400 a year in energy costs alone.

Congratulations and gratitude to Dr. Pengpeng Bi, not only for his incredible research contributions, but for being a champion for sustainability within the UGA research community.  Well done!